Cross-tie.



J. T. ANDREW,

tcnoss TIE. APPLIOATIbN FILED JAN-11. 1912.

Patented Jiz'ly 30, 1912.-

arm s To all whom z t may concern Unrrn JAMES '1. ANDREW, OF MONTGOMEBY,ALABAMA.

- CROSS-TIE.

Be it known that 1, JAMES T.-ANDREW, a citizen of the United States,residing at Montgomery, and State of Alabama, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Cross-Ties; and I do hereby declare thefollowing tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as'will enable others. skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same. l a This invention relates to railroad ties, andhas for its object to producea tie made from a plurality of individual.pieces, which will be less expensive to construct and more efficient inaction than those heretofore proposed.

' The present provement over former Patent #1901333 issued Augiiist 22,1911 and with the above objects in view, consists in the novel detailsof construction and" combinations of parts more fully hereinafterdisclosed and 'particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of thisspecification in which like numerals designate like parts in all theviews :-Figure 1 is a. perspective view of a tie .made inaccordancew'ith' my invention;

invention constitutes. an im- Fig. 2' is a sectional view on the line2-2 of Fig. 1; and, Fig. 3 is a plan view showing a plurality of ties inuse. v

1 indicates a plurality of individual timhere which may be 'convenientlyobtained from the half grown timber covering large areas of thiscountry, and yet which is too small to supply sufficiently lar e piecesout e constructthattiinber of sutficient size to roduce single piecetles is very scarce in t is country,

I while timber of avsize sufiiciently large to firmly together produceties of two or more pieces, is quite produce the by suitably shapingpieces obtained from the half grown timber, so as to make them fittogether as illustrated, and I then combine said pieces to constitute asingle tie in the manner now to be disclosed.

The individual pieces 1 are preferably shaped as shown, their abuttinginner edges 2 are neit cfit away to form a suitable hole abundant.Accordingly,'I may running longitudinally of the finished tie,

Specification of Letters Patent. I Application filed January-11, 1912.Serial No. 670,618. I

in the county of Montgomery up tie, as shown, and

, together.-

the tie disclosed in my new piece,

Patented July 30,1912.

and through this hole I pass a rod 3 or other fastening member, asshown. The said rod may be conveniently provided with a head' 4 at oneend, andathread and nut 5 or other fastening, at its other end; A washer6 may also be conveniently employed in'con-' nection with the fastening5. The ends of the built up tie thus formed, are suitably.

tapered to fit perforated metal caps 7 or like fastenings which slipover said'ends,

and when the said caps are in place, the end 3 is passed through thecenter of the built when the fastening 5 is securely in place, the partsare firmly held The said fastening 5 may be provided with any suitablenut lock, as for example, a cotter pin or other means 8, to pre-' ventthe parts from working loose.

The advantages of a tie made in accordance with my invention will beobvious when it is remembered that it is a well known fact that manyties are discarded when they, have deteriorated only at some particularspot, although the larger portion of the tie itself is in goodcondition. In a tie built in accordance with the above invention.,'should any of the members 1 become decayed or otherwise injured, it is acomparatively easy matter to either replace the member by -a or inmanycases, should only the outside of the member be injured, the

member could be taken out, turned through an angle of 180, and replaced,whereupon it would have a life of considerable useful ness still left. Afurther advantage of a tie of this nature resides in the factthat .theindividual members are more easily penetrated by a creosoting solutionthan would be the case if the tie were made from a single piece. Themembers 7 can be conveniently cast or dropped forged while the rod 3 canbe made nism.

ber of pieces may be illustrated, but I prefer to use four individualmembers 1 as disclosed.

What'I claim is 1. In a cross tie, the combination of a plurality ofindependent pieces fitted together to form the body of the tie, saidpieces being cut away at their meeting surfaces to by any suitablemecha-' It is obvious that a greater or a less num-- employed than that"form a hole extending through the tie'body from end to end; metal capsfitting. and covering the ends of said body; and a rod pro-' vided withfastenings passing through said caps and hole and binding the partsfirmly 7 together, substantially as described.

2. n a cross tie, the combination of a plurality of independent piecesfitted together to form the body of the tie said i pieces being cutawayat their. meeting sur faces to form a hole extending through the tiebody from end to end; metal caps having holes registering with saidfirst mentioned hole fitting and covering the ends of said body; and arod provided with fastenings at each end passing through said caps andhole and binding the parts firmly together, substantially as described.

' 3. In a cross tie, the combination of independent pieces rectangnlarin cross section fitted together to form the body of the tie and havingtheir contiguous corners cut away to form a hole extending from end toend of the tie; metal caps covering and fitting the ends of said bodyportion and having holes registering with said first mentioned hole; arod having a head at one end and a removable fastening comprising a nutlook at its other end passing through said holes and firmly binding theparts together, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I afiix my signature, in presence of twowitnesses.

JAMES T. ANDREW. A

Witnesses:

T. A. WrrHnRsPooN, N. CURTIS LAMMOND,

